Matthias Erzberger

Matthias Erzberger (20 September 1875-26 August 1921) was Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 21 June 1919 to 3 October 1919, succeeding Bernhard Dernburg and preceding Eugen Schiffer, as well as Reich Minister for Finance from 21 June 1919 to 12 March 1920, succeeding Dernburg and preceding Joseph Wirth. He was a member of the Center Party of Germany.

Biography
Matthias Erzberger was born in Buttenhausen, Wurttemberg, German Empire in 1875, and he was elected to the Reichstag from the Center Party of Germany in 1903 after working as a Center Party journalist. Erzberger initially supported World War I, but in 1917 he was instrumental in bringing about a peace resolution in the German Parliament which called for negotiations to end the war. Partly because of this, and partly because as a Minister of State from October 1918 he was one of the signers of the German armistice, he became a hated figure among the German right. His most enduring legacy was the comprehensive fiscal reform which strengthened the income of the federal Weimar Republic at the expense of its states and localities. In 1921, he was murdered by two right-wing ex-army officers while he was on a walk in the Black Forest.